Worthy of an 11-year-old

Sadiq Khan: Trump tweets worthy of an 11-year-old

London mayor says honor of a state visit risks condoning Trump’s actions.

By JAMES RANDERSON AND ANNABELLE DICKSON

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he thinks the insulting tweets about him sent Monday morning by Donald Trump were worthy of "an 11-year-old."

The president, who is on a state visit to the United Kingdom, tweeted shortly before touching down that the mayor is a "stone cold loser" before making fun of his physical stature.

Khan told the BBC he had been in meetings when the tweets were posted but when he was told about them he did not believe they were real. "First I thought it was a joke, the sort of thing an 11-year-old would do," he said.

The mayor said he loved America and that it was vital to have good relations with the U.K.'s "closest ally." But he repeated his view that the honor of a state visit is not appropriate for the current president.

"We have to be very careful about giving the impression that we condone some of the things that [Trump] has been associated with," Khan said, before listing separating immigrant children from their parents at the Mexico border; attacking LGBT+ rights; pulling out of the Paris climate accord; and eroding the reproductive rights of women.

He encouraged Theresa May to "do a Hugh Grant 'Love Actually' moment" and challenge Trump publicly over some of the issues that the U.K. and U.S. disagree on. In the Richard Curtis film, the prime minister, played by Grant, calls out a bullying U.S. president played by Billy Bob Thornton.

"If you can’t be honest and candid with our best friend it's not really our best friend," said Khan.

At a meeting with business leaders earlier Tuesday, Trump again held out the offer of a trade deal post-Brexit. "I think we will have a very, very substantial trade deal. This is something you want to do and my folks want to do," he said before joking to May: "Stick around. Let’s do this deal." The prime minster has announced she will step down on Friday.

Separately, an official close to Environment Secretary Michael Gove said that the president's team had been in touch Monday night to request a meeting. The leading Brexiteer is a candidate to replace May as Tory leader and prime minister. It is not clear when such a meeting would happen but there is a gap in Trump's schedule ahead of a dinner at the American ambassador's residence this evening and also tomorrow morning before he heads to Portsmouth on the south coast.

Trump said ahead of his visit that he might meet former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, currently the leadership front-runner, and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, but there has been no confirmation that these meetings will take place.